THE GREEN GRYPHON INITIATIVE, A $26 MILLION SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT WHICH INTENDS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSITY $2.5 MILLION A YEAR IN UTILITY COSTS.
A 30m x 30m thermal energy storage tank. A green bike shelter. A solar-powered building. Parking lots which are now parks. Savings on resource use across the board. It has been two years since Sustainable Business Magazine last spoke with Maurice Nelischer, Director of Sustainability at the University of Guelph, and one thing which hasn’t changed in that time is the university’s ambitious, big-picture approach to sustainability. What has changed is the scale and the visibility of the campus sustainability projects. “It’s about getting the word out there,” says Professor Nelischer. “It’s more than making the campus
sustainable; it’s getting the students to understand, learn from, and value the changes. A really big-umbrella view of sustainability has really taken hold now.” This means some big, attention-grabbing projects; but, most importantly, it means keeping the students involved. STUDENT-FUNDED Two years ago, Professor Nelischer told Sustainable Business Magazine about how University of Guelph students voted to tax themselves $10 per semester towards investments into energy and water conservation retrofit projects. The Student Energy
Retrofit Fund (SERF) brings in an impressive $460,000 a year from the students, which is matched in kind by the university. Now, this fund has led to the creation of the Green Gryphon Initiative, a $26 million sustainability project which intends to save the university $2.5 million a year in utility costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4.7 million kg of CO2 a year. “It’s a really good example of students precipitating change,” says Professor Nelischer. “They committed this money, and as a result of that the university said: ‘Hey, this is a really good thing!’ Without the student support, none of this would have happened.” SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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